Special report: Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom

A striking shift in public policy has flown largely under the radar. | AP/Getty

In any case, surveys indicate that parents don’t put too much stock in test scores when looking for private schools.

The Friedman Foundation, which supports vouchers, last year asked hundreds of families receiving tax-credit scholarships in Georgia why they chose a private school. “Religious education” tied with “better education” as the single most important motivation, far above the other choices.

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A second Friedman Foundation survey of 1,400 voucher recipients in Indiana yielded similar results. Parents overwhelmingly cited “better academics” as their top reason, closely followed by “morals instruction” and “religious instruction.” Other motivations, such as a safer environment or smaller class sizes, fell way down the list.

The market reflects that demand: In state after state, faith-based schools consistently account for at least 70 percent, and sometimes far more, of the private schools receiving public subsidies.

AP BIOLOGY AS A TRAINING GROUND FOR ‘FAITH IN JESUS’

Not all religious schools, of course, teach creationism. Many have top-notch science programs with multiple Advanced Placement options. Many Catholic schools, in particular, make sure students get a solid grounding in evolution in biology class, no matter what they’re learning in theology.

Still, some of the most popular voucher schools in cities like New Orleans are firmly creationist.

Nationwide, science education activist Zack Kopplin has identified more than 300 creationist schools that receive public subsidies. That’s almost certainly a significant undercount, as his database does not include Pennsylvania, which has a huge program, or Iowa, which has a substantial one. Kopplin also counted only schools that advertised their philosophy online; many church-based schools don’t have websites at all.

Voucher proponents often describe the programs as a chance for students to escape failing public schools and obtain a better education. Yet the review of school websites and curricula found that some voucher schools openly declare that academics come second to their chief mission: training students to obey and glorify the Lord.

One publicly subsidized school in Pennsylvania put it this way: “Although academic quality is a high priority at West Chester Christian School, our primary goal is to maintain our distinctiveness as a Christian school as expressed in our motto: ‘Education with a Bible Foundation.’” Another touts as a key measure of success that its students are more likely than peers to attend religious services and believe in the Bible “as an infallible guide for personal life and behavior.”

The schools also make clear that their goal is to arm students against modern prisms for looking at the world, such as multiculturalism, and to train them to assess every historical event or scientific advance through Scripture.

Calvary Christian Academy in Philadelphia acknowledges on its website that “respected men and women of science, history, mathematics and language” have made great discoveries, but it reassures parents that “our understanding is not complete until we filter it through God’s Word.” Armed with Scripture, the site continues, “we should be able to disprove the fake and vain philosophies of the world.”

Another Calvary Christian Academy, this one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., describes the goal of its AP Biology course as preparing “students to have faith in Jesus in an age of science by evaluating college-level biology, chemistry and physics from a purely biblical perspective.” Both participate in their states’ voucher programs.

And at Cherokee Christian School in Woodstock, Ga., the biology curriculum presents Charles Darwin’s theories mostly in the context of showing students how to rebut them. Students are taught to argue, for instance, that cellular mutation could not lead to increased genetic variation. A class goal: “Discuss the importance of a right view of evolution.”

That “faith-based, Christ-centered” approach is precisely why Caroline Horne chose to send her two daughters to Cherokee Christian using the state’s subsidized tuition program.

Horne, a veterinarian, said she knows what it’s like to take college science courses with people who dismiss the biblical creation story as fiction. That’s why she wants her children to get “a strong foundation in their beliefs” in high school, she said, “so when they meet people who don’t agree with them, they can defend their view.”

SUBSIDIZED BIBLE STUDY IN THE HOME

Each state sets up its subsidy program differently. Some offer parents vouchers to cover tuition payments. Others will grant individuals or corporations huge tax credits for donating to a nonprofit that then awards scholarships to eligible families. (Federal deductions are often available, too, so some donors can actually make money off their gifts.)

Most programs start out targeted at low-income or disabled children, but they often expand. In Indiana, a family of four with an income of $88,000 is eligible for a partial voucher. In Pennsylvania, families with income above $100,000 can qualify if their local public school posts poor test scores. An Arizona bill would raise the income cutoff by 15 percent a year indefinitely.

The definition of special-needs students is also elastic; in some states, children can qualify if they have food allergies.

Perhaps the most novel program on the books is Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account. The state gives eligible families an average of $13,000 a year in public funds to spend on their children’s education. They can use the money not just to pay private school tuition but also to hire personal tutors or buy home school curricula, including creationist material.

The state superintendent, John Huppenthal, recently recorded calls to thousands of parents calling the program “great news” because it lets families finance “alternative education” on the public dime.

Both houses of the legislature in Mississippi have already approved a similar program that would give parents of special-needs students $6,000 in state funds. A conference committee is reconciling the bills. Voucher advocates estimate about 10 percent of students in the state would be eligible for the program, though participation would initially be capped at 500 children.